Paul Ryan, who objected to the Obama stimulus plan, denied in 2010 and again Wednesday that he ever sought stimulus money for Wisconsin projects. He then added, “I don’t recall” to his answer on Wednesday.

Thursday evening, Ryan acknowledged having sent the letters above his signature. “After having these letters called to my attention I checked into them, and they were treated as constituent service requests in the same way matters involving Social Security or Veterans Affairs are handled. This is why I didn’t recall the letters earlier. But they should have been handled differently, and I take responsibility for that.”

He did not explain why he was not alerted to the fact his office had sent a letter asking for stimulus aid from the Department of Labor when the Wall Street Journal reported on this in 2010…

…beginning in the fall of 2009, he sent the first of a series of letters to the Department of Energy on behalf of a pair of Wisconsin energy conservation groups, insisting the funds would help create jobs, the Globe reported on Tuesday.

For example, Ryan predicted that a grant being sought by the Madison-based Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation would “create or retain approximately 7,600 new jobs over the three-year grant period and the subsequent three years.”

So, Ryan denied for years that he ever requested stimulus money, until a national spotlight upon the issue forced him to acknowledge letters with his signature on it.